Digital holographic microscopy (DHM), also known as interference phase microscopy, is an imaging technology that provides the ability to quantitatively track sub-nanometric optical thickness changes in transparent specimens. Unlike traditional digital microscopy, in which only intensity (amplitude) information about a specimen is captured, DHM captures both phase and intensity. The phase information, captured as a hologram, can be used to reconstruct extended morphological information (such as depth and surface characteristics) about the specimen using a computer algorithm. Modern DHM implementations offer several additional benefits, such as fast scanning/data acquisition speed, low noise, high resolution and the potential for label-free sample acquisition.
Conventional cellular analysis techniques such as volume measurement and classification rely on two-dimensional cellular images that lack topographical information. Thus, while these techniques may analyze a cell based on information such as intensity, their accuracy is limited due to a lack of knowledge of the size and shape of the cell. Accordingly, it is desired to provide cellular analysis techniques which are applicable to imaging modalities such as DHM that provide more detailed information regarding cellular structure.